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UNIVERSITY  OF  N.C.  AT  CHAPEL  HILL 


00018263228 


^^THE  THREE  SIGNERS  ^^ 


i^ 


^^^An  address  by  HENRY  C.  CON- 
RAD,   Esq.,  of    Wilmington,    Delaware, 
before  The  Sons  of  Delaware,  of  Phila- 
3>Q>>-)  delphia,  Pennsylvania  ^^^j»^^^^^,^ 

2'1-lJ 

SATURDAY  EVENING 
JANUARY  30,  t897 


Printed  for 

The  Sons  of  Delaware^  Pliila* 

J897 


Press  of 

Mercantile  Printing  Company, 
Wilmington,  Del. 


Philadelphia,  Pcnna. 


The  President  of  the  Society,  Richard  Fisher,  Esq., 
introduced  Mr.  Conrad,  who  said : 

Mr.  President  and  Gentlemen: — The  three  men 
whose  names  appear  as  representatives  from  Delaware  on 
the  Declaration  of  Independence  have  always  interested 
me  very  much  as  public  characters.  I  have  had  some 
natural  bent,  I  think,  for  some  years  in  the  direction  of 
Revolutionary  affairs  and  have  been  brought  into  contact 
with  these  men  as  historical  characters.  And  the  more  I 
have  read  of  them  and  learned  of  them,  the  more  interest 
I  have  felt  in  them,  and  recently  I  have  prepared  this 
fragmentary  sketch,  covering  the  lives  of  these  three  men, 
with  the  hope  that  it  might  prove  interesting  to  such  as 
may  hear  it. 

The  first  of  these  men  of  whom  I  shall  treat  is  Caesar 
Rodney,  who  was  born  in  1728,  near  Dover,  in  Dela- 
ware. His  father^s  name  was  also  Caesar.  He  was  a 
grandson  of  William  Rodney.  His  mother's  name  was 
Crawford,  being  the  daughter  of  Rev.  Thomas  Crawford, 
I  think  the  earliest  Rector  of  Christ  Episcopal  Church  at 
Dover.  The  name  ^^  Caesar '^  was  the  family  name  that 
came  to  Caesar  Rodney,  the  signer,  from  his  maternal 
grandfather,  whose  name  was  Thomas  Caesar  and  who 
lived  in  London.    The  family  was  of  English  descent. 

The  ancestors  of  the  family  in  this  country  settled  in 
Kent  County  early  in  J  700. 

In  order  that  we  may  go  back  to  the  times  in  which 
these  people  lived,  I  want  to  quote,  very  briefly  from  a 
letter  written  by  Thomas  Rodney,  a  brother  of  Caesar, 
the  signer,  in  which  he  speaks  of  the  manners  and  cus- 
toms of  the  people  of  that  day: 

*^  The  manner  and  customs  of  the  white  people  when 


Sons  of  Delaware, 


I  first  remember,  were  very  simple,  plain  and  sociaL  Very 
few  foreign  articles  were  used  in  this  part  of  the  country 
for  eating,  drinking  or  clothing*  Almost  every  family 
manufactured  their  own  clothes;  and  beef,  pork,  poultry, 
milk,  butter,  cheese,  wheat,  and  Indian  corn  were  raised 
by  themselves,  served  them  with  fruits  of  the  country, 
and  wild  game  for  food;  and  cider,  small  beer,  and  peach 
and  apple  brandy  for  drink*  The  best  families  in  the 
country  but  seldom  used  tea,  coffee,  chocolate  or  sugar, 
for  honey  was  their  sweetening*  The  largest  farmers  at 
that  time  did  not  sow  over  twenty  acres  of  wheat,  nor 
tend  more  than  thirty  acres  of  Indian  corn,  and  there  was 
very  few  of  this  sort,  so  that  all  the  families  in  the  country 
had  a  great  deal  of  idle  time,  for  the  land  being  fertile 
supplied  them  plentifully  by  a  little  labor,  with  all  that 
was  necessary,  hay  with  great  abundance,  more  than 
enough,  grudged  nothing  to  those  who  happened  to  want. 
Indeed,  they  seemed  to  live  as  it  were  in  concord;  for 
they  constantly  associated  together  at  one  house  or  an- 
other in  considerable  numbers,  to  play  and  frolic,  at  which 
times  the  young  people  would  dance,  and  the  elder  ones 
whistle,  run,  hop,  jump  or  throw  the  disc  or  play  at  some 
rustic  and  manly  exercises.  On  Christmas  Eve  there 
was  an  universal  firing  of  guns,  and  traveling  round  from 
house  to  house  during  the  holiday,  and  indeed  all  winter 
there  was  a  continual  frolic  at  one  house  or  another, 
shooting-matches,  twelfth-cakes,  &c*^' 

This  is  an  indication  of  the  simplicity  of  the  people 
in  the  times  in  which  these  men  figured* 

Caesar  Rodney^s  father  died  in  1745*  The  son 
Caesar,  being  the  eldest  son,  inherited  all*  He  was  a  man 
of  meagre  education,  so  far  as  known,  and  was  raised  a 


Philadelphia,  Penna* 


farmer,  and  had  very  little  advantage  of  books  or  of 
learning  in  that  day.  He  was  appointed  High  Sheriff  of 
Kent  County  in  1758,  when  but  thirty  years  of  age,  and 
shortly  afterwards  Justice  of  the  Peace  and  Judge  of  all 
the  Courts. 

Delaware  was  then  a  Province  (part  of  Pennsyl- 
vania) under  the  control  of  the  English  government. 

In  1762  he  was  appointed  with  Thomas  McKean 
to  revise  and  print  the  laws — that  is,  all  existing  laws  of 
this  Province  in  force  at  that  time — and  there  are  copies 
of  these  laws  now  in  existence.  In  fact,  we  have  one  or 
two  in  the  possession  of  our  Historical  Society  in  Wil- 
mington. 

Rodney  and  McKean  were  elected  to  represent 
Delaware  in  the  Stamp  Act  Congress  which  met  in  New 
York  in  October,  1765;  and  both  took  conspicuous  and 
influential  parts  in  its  deliberations  and  served  on  its  most 
important  committees. 

One  of  the  issues  which  led  up  to  the  Revolution 
was  the  failure  of  the  British  Government  to  allow  the 
people  living  in  these  colonies  to  tax  themselves,  and  also 
the  further  denial  of  the  right  to  be  tried  by  their  peers. 
As  I  understand  it,  in  many  cases  of  importance,  the 
British  authorities  insisted  upon  taking  the  people  who 
were  to  be  tried,  and  who  should  have  been  tried  here  for 
these  offenses,  across  the  water  to  be  tried  by  entire 
strangers  to  them ;  and  they  insisted  that  by  right  they 
were  entitled  to  be  tried  by  their  peers. 

From  J  766  to  1769,  Rodney  was  an  active  member 
of  the  General  Assembly  and  sought  to  prohibit  the 
importation  of  slaves,  even  at  that  early  period. 

Never  a  robust  man,  about  this  time,  in  J  768  I  think 


Sons  of  Delaware, 


it  was,  there  appeared  on  his  face,  what  proved  to  be  a 
cancer,  and  it  was  a  source  of  very  great  pain  and  distress 
to  him  during  the  remainder  of  his  life.  I  have  here  a 
letter  written  by  him  under  date  of  June  13,  1768,  in 
which  he  says  he  has  gone  to  Philadelphia  with  a  view 
to  consulting  physicians  as  to  this  trouble  on  his  face* 
He  says  further:  "But  to  conclude,  my  case  is  truly 
dangerous,  and  what  will  be  the  event,  God  only  knows, 
I  stfll  live  in  hopes  and  still  retain  my  usual  flow  of 
spirits/^ 

In  a  letter  written  a  week  before,  he  says: 

**  I  got  to  Philadelphia  on  Saturday,  and  on  Monday 
applied  to  doctors  concerning  the  sore  on  my  nose,  who 
all,  upon  examination,  pronounced  it  a  cancer,  and  that  it 
will  be  necessary  I  should  go  through  a  small  course  of 
physick  and  then  to  extract  it  by  a  costick  or  by  cutting 
it  out,  all  which  (to  me)  is  a  dreadful  undertaking — and 
will  require  so  much  time,  that  it  is  impossible  for  me  to 
now  to  determine  when  you  may  probably  expect  to  see 
me  in  Kent  again — if  ever — as  (no  doubt)  it  will  be 
attended  with  danger/^ 

Then  followed  the  letter  of  a  week  later,  in  which 
he  says,  '^what  will  be  the  event,  God  only  knows,  I 
still  live  in  hopes  and  still  retain  my  usual  flow  of  spirits/^ 

I  quote  from  these  letters  to  show  that  notwithstand- 
ing what  was  almost  a  death  sentence  pronounced  upon 
this  man,  for  nearly  twenty  years  after  that  he  stood  at 
his  post  of  public  duty  and  made  for  himself  a  name  that 
has  come  down  to  us  after  more  than  one  hundred  years, 
as  probably  the  foremost  name  in  Delaware  history. 

Rodney  was  almost  continuously  a  member  of  the 
Legislature  and  frequently  its  speaker — From  the  Stamp 


Philadelphia,  Pcnna* 


act  Congress  in  J  765  until  the  close  of  the  Revolution,  he 
was  the  most  active,  and  was  by  odds  the  leading  man  in 
the  State  in  espousing  the  American  cause* 

We  have  somehow  drifted  into  the  idea  that  at  that 
time  the  whole  people  rose  en  masse  in  favor  of  severing 
the  relations  between  these  colonies  and  the  mother  coun- 
try*  As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  people  were  very  evenly 
divided.  There  was  a  large  number  of  people  in  every 
one  of  the  colonies  who  were  honestly  of  opinion  that  the 
time  had  not  come  when  the  colonies  were  strong  enough 
to  form  and  maintain  a  government  of  their  own;  that 
the  time  had  not  come  when  it  was  expedient  for  them  to 
break  the  ties  which  joined  them  to  the  mother  country. 
So  that  these  men  who  stood  in  the  fore-front  of  this 
movement  for  independence  were  harassed  continually  by 
this  sentiment  which  existed  in  all  of  the  colonies,  and  it 
was  a  great  deal  harder  task  that  they  had  to  perform, 
than  if  the  overwhelming  sentiment  of  the  people  had  been 
in  favor  of  independence.  The  result  of  this  was,  that 
men  who  were  fighting  in  the  field,  and  the  men  who 
were  representing  the  different  colonies  in  their  assem- 
blies, were  continually  harassed  with  this  firing  from  the 
rear,  so  to  speak,  by  these  opponents  of  American  inde- 
pendence. That  was  particularly  the  case  as  regards 
Caesar  Rodney.  In  reading  his  letters  you  find  that  he 
was  with  the  military  one  day  and  back  in  Dover  the 
next,  trying  to  prevent  the  people  from  overturning  all 
that  was  being  done  in  the  field  and  in  Congress.  With 
that  opposition  existing  you  can  appreciate  the  hard  duty 
which  these  men  had  to  perform. 

There  was  a  Committee  of  Correspondence  in  each 
of  the  colonies  in  1772-73-74.     Mr.  Rodney  was,  during 


Sons  of  Delaware, 


all  these  years,  a  leading  member  of  this  Committee  on 
Correspondence*  That  Committee,  as  its  name  suggests, 
was  composed  of  leading  men  who  were  in  favor  of 
American  Independence,  and  a  continual  correspondence 
was  kept  up  with  the  different  colonies,  suggesting  how 
the  movement  was  getting  along  and  how  the  sentiment 
for  independence  was  growing  from  time  to  time*  The 
Committee  of  Correspondence  held  a  convention  at  New 
Castle,  under  date  of  August  I,  J 774,  with  a  view  of 
choosing  delegates  to  the  first  Continental  Congress  which 
was  to  meet  in  Philadelphia  a  month  later*  I  have  in  my 
possession  a  most  interesting  relic,  being  a  notice  written 
and  sent  by  Caesar  Rodney,  calling  upon  Dr*  Charles 
Ridgely,  a  delegate  from  Kent  County  to  attend  this  meet- 
ing at  New  Castle* 

A  month  later  (September  5,  1774),  the  first  Conti- 
nental Congress  met  in  Philadelphia,  with  Rodney,  Read 
and  McKean  as  the  representatives  from  Delaware* 
There  were  fifty-six  delegates  present*  George  Wash- 
ington was  a  member  from  Virginia*  Rodney  was  also 
a  delegate  to  the  Continental  Congress  of  J  775-76* 

The  population  of  Delaware  in  1775  was  35,000* 
Rodney  was  speaker  of  the  Assembly  of  the  State  while 
in  Congress*  He  was  also  a  Brigadier-General  in  the 
Continental  Army — in  the  field  and  back  again  to  the 
State,  serving  as  a  military  man  and  serving  as  the  lead- 
ing Statesman  of  the  day;  evidently  the  man  of  all  others 
who  was  continually  conferred  with  as  to  all  lines  of  con- 
duct in  that  time,  both  in  the  civil  and  in  the  military 
service* 

Letters  extant  indicate  that  he  was  close  to  Wash- 
ington— possibly  as  near  to  Washington  as  any  man 


Philadelphia,  Pcnna^  9 

living  in  Delaware  at  that  time*  There  are  a  great  many- 
letters  in  existence,  from  Washington  to  Rodney  and  from 
Rodney  to  Washington,  in  which  the  situations  of  that 
day  are  discussed  and  explained*  They  are  scattered  all 
about*  I  do  not  recall  that  the  Delaware  Historical  So- 
ciety has  even  an  autograph  signature  of  Caesar  Rodney. 
Some  of  them  still  are  in  the  possession  of  the  Rodney 
family*  I  think  Mr*  John  M*  C*  Rodney,  living  at  Cool 
Spring,  has  some  of  them*  A  good  many  of  them  are 
published  in  **  Spark^s  Life  and  Correspondence  of  Wash- 
ington*^^ 

Caesar  Rodney  was  among  the  first  to  advocate  the 
election  of  George  Washington  as  Commander-in-Chief 
of  the  American  Army*  He  was  his  warm,  ardent  and 
close  friend  all  through  the  War  of  the  Revolution,  as 
shown  by  his  correspondence* 

We  come  now  to  July  I,  1776*  On  that  day  the 
vote  was  taken  in  the  Committee  of  the  Whole  of  the 
Continental  Congress  as  to  the  framing  and  proclaiming 
of  the  Declaration  of  Independence*  There  were  thirteen 
original  colonies  represented — ^I  do  not  know  whether 
anybody  else  has  any  such  a  faculty  as  I  have  of  always 
forgetting  which  were  the  thirteen  original  colonies,  but  I 
have  taken  precaution  this  time  to  set  them  down,  and  as 
I  have  them  before  me,  I  will  make  no  mistake  this  time* 

The  thirteen  original  colonies  were — New  Hamp- 
shire, Massachusetts,  Rhode  Island,  Connecticut,  New 
York,  New  Jersey,  Pennsylvania,  Delaware,  Maryland, 
Virginia,  North  Carolina,  South  Carolina  and  Georgia; 
all  feeble  little  colonies,  scattered  along  the  Atlantic  sea- 
board* 

In  the  Committee  of  the  Whole,  ten  out  of  the  thirteen 


10  Sons  of  Delaware, 


colonies  voted  in  favor  of  proclaiming  the  Declaration  of 
Independence.  Pennsylvania  had  seven  delegates ;  four 
of  whom  were  opposed  to  it  and  three  in  favor  of  it. 
Delaware  had  two  members  present — McKean  and  Read 
— and  being  divided,  did  not  vote.  Rodney  was  absent. 
McKean  was  in  favor  of,  and  Read  against  the  Declara- 
tion. MeKean  appreciating  that  it  was  most  important, 
for  the  sentiment  it  would  create,  that  the  Declaration  of 
Independence  should  be  proclaimed,  if  proclaimed  at  all, 
by  the  unanimous  vote  of  these  thirteen  colonies,  sent  for 
Rodney,  who  was  at  the  time  at  one  of  his  farms  near 
Dover  (one  called  ^' By-field  ^^  and  the  other  ^^  Poplar 
Grove  ^0  ^^^  A^  story  goes  that  Rodney  came  post-haste 
and  that  he  arrived  just  in  time  to  save  the  day,  and  cast 
the  vote  of  Delaware  in  favor  of  the  Declaration  of 
Independence. 

McKean,  writing  of  it  years  afterwards  to  Caesar 
A.  Rodney,  a  nephew  of  Caesar  Rodney,  the  signer,  says: 
**l  sent  an  express,  at  my  own  private  expense,  for  your 
honored  uncle,  Caesar  Rodney,  Esquire,  the  remaining 
member  for  Delaware,  whom  I  met  at  the  State  House 
door,  in  his  boots  and  spurs,  as  the  members  were  assem- 
bling. After  a  friendly  salutation,  without  a  word  on  the 
business,  we  went  into  the  hall  of  Congress  together,  and 
found  we  were  among  the  latest.  Proceedings  imme- 
diately commenced,  and  after  a  few  minutes  the  great 
question  was  put.  When  the  vote  for  Delaware  was 
called,  your  uncle  arose  and  said :  ^  As  I  believe  the  voice 
of  my  constituents  and  of  all  sensible  and  honest  men  is 
in  favor  of  independence  my  own  judgment  concurs  with 
them,  I  vote  for  independence,^  or  in  words  to  the  same 
effect.'^ 


Philadelphia^  Pcnna.  i  I 


And  so  in  that  way,  by  bringing  Caesar  Rodney 
those  seventy  or  eighty  miles  and  joining  his  vote  with 
the  vote  of  Thomas  McKean,  Delaware's  vote  was  re- 
corded that  day  in  favor  of  proclaiming  the  Declaration 
of  Independence*  Pennsylvania's  vote^  it  turned  out,  was 
cast  for  the  Declaration  also;  and  thereby  the  unanimous 
vote  of  the  thirteen  colonies  was  procured*  It  happened 
that  only  five,  of  the  seven  members  from  Pennsylvania 
were  present,  and  three  out  of  the  five  were  in  favor  of 
it,  three  making  a  majority  of  those  present,  and  so  Penn- 
sylvania's vote  was  cast  for  the  Declaration.  If  the  other 
members  from  that  State  who  were  opposed  to  it  had 
been  there,  they  could  have  thrown  the  vote  of  Pennsyl- 
vania against  it. 

Caesar  Rodney  was  a  member  of  the  Convention 
that  framed  the  first  Constitution  of  Delaware,  in  August, 
1776.  He  was  again  elected  to  Congress  in  J  777.  In 
August,  1777,  the  forces  of  Lord  Howe  landed  at  Head 
of  Elk,  near  what  is  now  known  as  Elkton,  and  very 
shortly  afterwards  the  Battle  of  Brandy  wine  was  fought. 
At  that  time  Caesar  Rodney  was  placed  in  command  of 
the  Delaware  State  Militia,  and  served  to  protect  Dela- 
ware from  the  invasions  of  the  British  force  which  landed 
at  the  Head  of  Elk.  The  statement  is  made  that  he  was 
in  command  and  that  his  force  was  encamped  a  little  to 
the  Southeast  of  Middletown,  at  a  place  then  called 
Noxontown,  which  was  his  headquarters,  and  there  for 
several  days  he  guarded  the  inhabitants  of  Delaware  from 
the  invasion  of  the  British  forces.  There  were  forty- 
seven  hundred  and  twenty-eight  soldiers  from  Delaware 
in  the  Continental  Army. 

In  1778,  a  year  afterwards,  he  was  elected  President 


12  Sons  of  Delaware, 


(Governor)  of  Delaware^  He  had  served,  as  you  see, 
almost  without  interruption,  in  the  General  Assembly  of 
the  State,  and  its  representative  in  the  Continental  Con- 
gress, meeting  from  year  to  year*  He  was  also  serving 
as  Brigadier-General,  and  now  the  General  Assembly  of 
State  elected  him  Governor*  Just  here  I  want  to  read 
you,  as  a  matter  of  interest,  a  very  brief  letter  which  he 
wrote  in  acknowledgment  of  the  action  of  the  General 
Assembly  in  electing  him  Governor* 

''Wednesday,  A*  M*,  April  1st,  1778* 
''Gentlemen  of  the  General  Assembly: 

"I  received  yesterday  afternoon  your  message  declar- 
ing me  duly  elected  President  of  the  Delaware  State'^ — 

At  that  time,  and  for  a  few  years  afterwards,  the 
Chief  Executive  of  the  State  was  called  "  President  ^^  and 
not  "Governor*^^    Continuing  he  says: 

"And  am  fully  sensible  of  the  honor  done  me  by  the 
appointment;  but  as  I  am  too  conscious  of  my  own  ina- 
bility to  suppose  your  expectation  will  be  answered  by 
my  acceptance,  I  hope  I  shall  be  excused*  I  think,  never- 
theless, that  at  a  time  like  this,  it  is  the  duty  of  every 
member  of  society  to  take  such  part  in  the  civil  line  as 
shall  be  assigned  him  by  the  government,  if  tolerably 
qualified;  therefore  if  the  General  Assembly  cannot  fix 
upon  some  other  person  more  equal  to  that  important 
duty,  I  shall,  though  with  great  diffidence,  accept;  in  full 
confidence,  however,  that  Your  Honors  will  afford  me 
every  necessary  aid  in  the  due  execution  of  the  laws,  and 
otherwise  supporting  the  civil  government  as  now  estab- 
lished under  the  authority  of  the  people ;  and  as  the  pro- 
vision made  for  the  President  is  by  no  means  an  ample 
one;  that  the  General  Assembly  would  not  wish  to  add 


Philadelphia,  Penna»  13 


to  the  sacrifice  I  have  already  made,  by  which  more  than 
ought  to  fall  to  the  share  of  any  one  member  of  the  com- 
munity* 

*^  Caesar  Rodney/^ 

He  did  accept,  although  his  letter  indicates  that  he 
hesitated  about  it;  and  he  was  Governor  for  three  years* 
He  was  a  member  of  the  Legislative  Council  and  its 
Speaker  in  J  784*  On  April  8,  J  784,  it  is  recorded  that 
what  was  called  the  State  Council,  of  which  he  was  a 
member  and  the  Presiding  Officer,  met  at  his  own  house 
out  on  one  of  his  farms  a  little  east  of  Dover*  He  being 
too  ill  to  attend  at  the  regular  meeting  place,  the  Council 
came  to  him* 

Caesar  Rodney  died  June  26,  1784,  of  cancer,  yet  a 
comparatively  young  man,  being  in  his  fifty-sixth  year* 
He  never  married*  For  his  time,  he  was  regarded  as  a 
substantial  man,  a  man  of  considerable  means  for  that 
day  and  generation*  His  will  indicates  that  he  left  a 
comfortable  estate*  There  is  a  tradition  in  his  family 
that  he  owned  two  hundred  slaves*  By  his  will  they 
were  all  manumitted*  And  yet  he  doubtless  sacrificed  a 
great  deal  of  his  own  means  in  the  various  positions  in 
which  he  served  his  country  during  that  trying  time* 

Judge  Whitely,  speaking  of  the  Revolutionary  sol- 
diers, says,  ^*  that  to  Rodney  more  than  to  any  other  man 
in  Delaware  do  we  owe  the  position  which  our  State  and 
people  took  in  that  most  important  contest*^^ 

John  Adams,  in  his  Diary,  describes  Caesar  Rodney 
as  follows: 

**  Caesar  Rodney  is  the  oddest  looking  man  in  the 
world;  he  is  tall,  thin  and  slender  as  a  reed  and  pale; 


14  Sons  of  Delaware, 


his  face  is  not  bigger  than  a  large  apple,  yet  there  is  sense, 
fire,  spirit,  wit  and  humour  in  his  countenance/* 

His  brother,  Thomas,  describing  him  says:  **  Caesar 
Rodney  was  about  five  feet  ten  inches  high ;  his  person 
was  very  elegant  and  genteel ;  his  manners  graceful,  easy 
and  polite^  He  had  a  good  fund  of  humour,  and  the 
happiest  talent  in  the  world  of  making  his  wit  agreeable, 
however  sparkling  and  severe.  He  was  a  great  states- 
man, a  faithful  public  officer,  just  in  all  his  dealings,  easy 
to  his  family  and  debtors,  sincere  to  his  friends,  beneficent 
to  his  relatives,  and  kind  to  his  servants,  and  always 
lived  in  a  generous  and  social  style/* 

He  was  buried  on  one  of  his  farms  near  Dover.  In 
1888  or  1889,  an  association  of  young  men  in  Dover 
calling  itself  the  ^*  Rodney  Club,**  arranged  for  the 
removal  of  the  remains  of  Caesar  Rodney  from  the 
rather  neglected  locality  on  the  old  Rodney  farm  and 
interred  the  same  in  Christ*s  Episcopal  Church-yard  in 
Dover ;  and  over  his  remains  there  has  been  erected  a 
substantial  granite  tomb-stone,  to  mark  his  last  resting 
place. 

There  is  no  picture  of  Caesar  Rodney  in  existence; 
presumably  on  account  of  his  face  being  so  disfigured  by 
the  cancer,  he  was  averse  to  having  one  taken.  There 
is  a  picture  extant  of  Caesar  A.  Rodney,  a  nephew  of 
Caesar  Rodney,  the  signer,  and  he  is  frequently  confused 
with  Caesar  Rodney,  the  signer.  Caesar  A.  Rodney 
was  a  very  distinguished  and  prominent  man  in  his  day, 
but  belonged  to  the  generation  succeeding  Caesar  Rodney, 
the  signer. 


Philadelphia,  Pcnna.  15 


GEORGE  READ. 

Wc  come  now  to  George  Read.  He  was  born  of 
Irish  parentage  in  1734,  and  was  the  oldest  of  six  brothers. 
His  father^s  name  was  John  Read.  About  the  time,  or 
shortly  after  George  Read  was  born  in  Cecil  County, 
Maryland,  his  father  came  over  and  settled  near  Chris- 
tiana Bridge,  at  what  we  now  call  **  Christiana.'^  He  was 
educated  at  Chester  and  at  New  London.  There  was  at 
that  time  an  Academy  at  New  London  of  the  first 
rank  under  the  charge  of  Doctor  Allison,  afterwards 
connected  with  the  University  of  Pennsylvania.  He 
studied  law  with  John  Moland,  in  Philadelphia,  who 
was  a  distinguished  member  of  the  bar  of  that  city, 
and  was  admitted  to  the  bar  when  nineteen  years  of 
age. 

He  was  entitled  by  law  to  two  shares  of  his  father's 
estate ;  but  he  took  the  ground  that  his  father  had  spent 
on  him  all  that  he  was  entitled  to  receive  in  giving  him 
his  education,  and  so  he  surrendered  the  two  shares 
which  the  law  gave  him  to  his  brothers  and  sisters,  and 
refused  to  take  anything  himself. 

He  settled  in  New  Castle  in  1754.  He  married,  in 
1763,  Miss  Gertrude  Ross,  daughter  of  Reverend  George 
Ross,  Rector  of  Immanuel  Episcopal  Church  at  New 
Castle.  Although  a  believer  in  the  maxim  that  men  who 
are  ambitious  of  reaching  the  acme  of  their  ambitions 
should  never  marry,  he  did  marry.  It  was  somewhat 
like  the  case  of  a  man's  preaching  one  thing  and  practic- 
ing another.  George  Read's  wife,  Gertrude  Ross,  was 
also  a  sister  of  George  Ross,  one  of  the  signers  of  the 
Declaration  of  Independence  from  Pennsylvania. 

He  succeeded  John  Ross  as  Attorney-General  in 


16  Sons  of  Delaware, 


1763,  and  was  really  the  first  Attorney-General  appointed 
to  serve  Delaware  alone  in  the  capacity  of  a  prosecuting 
attorney.  Before  that  the  Attorney-Generals  from  Penn- 
sylvania had  merely  visited  the  Courts  here,  and  Read 
was  the  first  one  to  serve  Delaware  alone. 

In  1765  he  held  an  office  under  the  Crown,  but  es- 
poused the  American  cause.  He  was  elected  a  member 
of  the  General  Assembly  in  1765,  and  was  a  member 
continuously  for  twelve  years. 

You  will  observe  how  these  three  men,  Rodney, 
McKean  and  Read,  for  a  period  of  twenty  years  seemed 
to  stay  side  by  side,  and  wherever  you  would  find  one, 
there  the  others  were.  The  people,  during  all  that  time, 
seemed  to  look  to  these  three  men  as  the  men  best  fitted 
to  exercise  the  most  important  public  functions. 

In  1774  Read  was  sent  as  a  representative,  with 
Rodney  and  McKean,  to  the  first  Congress,  and  continued 
a  member  until  the  close  of  the  war  in  J  783,  covering  a 
period  of  nine  years.  One  after  another  he  served  in 
these  positions:  He  was  one  of  the  Representatives  in 
the  Continental  Congress  from  Delaware;  he  shouldered 
a  musket  as  a  private  in  the  militia  in  1775,  and  was  also 
enrolled  in  Richard  McWilliam^s  Company  of  Foot  in 
1757;  he  was  President  of  the  Convention  that  formed 
the  first  Constitution  for  the  State  in  1776. 

The  first  President  of  Delaware  was  John  McKinly. 
McKinly  is  a  name  that  we  are  familiar  with  at  this  time^ 
but  it  is  William  now  and  not  John.  John  McKinly  was 
a  doctor  of  medicine  and  a  distinguished  man  in  that  day. 
After  the  Battle  of  Brandywine,  the  British  swooped 
down  on  Wilmington  and  got  possession  there.  They 
took  Governor  McKinly  prisoner  and  put  him  on  a  boat 


Philadelphia,  Penna*  17 


and  held  him  in  the  Delaware  River  for  several  months^ 
At  that  time  Read  was  Speaker  of  the  Assembly,  and  by- 
virtue  of  that  office,  became  President  of  the  State.  On 
the  locking  up  of  President  McKinly,  it  devolved  on 
Read  to  take  command,  and  he  proceeded  to  do  so. 

He  was  in  Philadelphia  at  the  time,  and  the  shores 
of  the  Delaware  River  from  Philadelphia  down  past 
Chester  and  on  to  Wilmington  were  largely  in  control  of 
the  British  forces.  It  was  deemed  important  for  him  to 
come  down  into  Delaware  and  take  command,  so  he 
struck  out  through  New  Jersey,  coming  down  on  that 
side  of  the  Delaware  River,  going  to  Salem  and  going 
across  from  Salem  in  a  boat.  There  were  several  British 
gun  boats  in  the  Delaware  at  that  time  and  he  came  very 
near  being  taken  prisoner  in  coming  across;  but  finally 
landed  on  the  Delaware  side  with  his  family,  went  to 
Dover,  and  during  the  time  that  John  McKinly  was  held 
a  prisoner  on  the  British  boat  in  the  Delaware,  Read 
acted  as  Governor. 

He  served  as  member  of  the  General  Assembly  from 
J  767  to  1779,  a  period  of  twelve  years.  In  1782  was 
appointed  Judge  of  the  United  States  Court  of  Appeals 
in  Admiralty,  which  position  he  held  until  the  abolition  of 
the  Court. 

In  1787  he  was  a  member  of  the  Convention  that 
framed  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States.  In  J  789 
he  was  elected  the  first  United  States  Senator  from  Dela- 
ware. He  resigned  his  seat  in  the  Senate  to  become 
Chief  Justice  in  1793,  and  served  until  his  death  in  1798. 

Governor  Joshua  Clayton,  (who  was  Governor  of 
Delaware  when  the  Constitution  of  1792  went  into  force), 
wrote  to  Read,  who  was  United  States  Senator  from 


18  Sons  of  Delaware, 


Delaware,  asking  him  to  accept  the  place  of  his  choice  in 
the  judiciary  system  under  the  new  Constitution  of  the 
State*  He  chose,  after  some  hesitation,  the  position  of 
Chief  Justice,  which  he  filled  acceptably  until  his  death. 

He  died  at  New  Castle,  September  21,  J  789,  in  the 
sixty-fourth  year  of  his  age,  after  a  most  eventful  life, 
which  was  spent  largely  in  the  public  service,  and  was 
buried  there  in  the  grave-yard  of  the  Immanuel  Episcopal 
Church. 

He  must  have  been  a  man  of  means,  always  living 
in  much  style.  The  Read  house,  which  was  his  home 
for  years,  and  in  which  he  entertained  very  handsomely 
all  the  prominent  men  of  his  day,  was  burned  down  in 
the  fire  of  1824.  There  is  now  in  New  Castle,  a  large 
house  the  Read  house,  but  that  house  was  built  by  George 
Read,  Junior,  the  son  of  George  Read,  the  signer ;  and  it 
is  said  that  he  had  the  misfortune  of  investing  so  much 
money  in  it  that  it  seriously  embarrassed  him.  The 
house,  however,  must  not  be  confused  with  the  residence 
of  George  Read,  the  signer. 

THOMAS  McKEAN. 

Thomas  McKean  was  of  Irish  parentage,  and  was 
born  at  New  London,  Chester  County,  Pennsylvania,  in 
1 734.  He  was  principally  educated  there  in  the  Academy 
that  was  presided  over,  as  I  have  suggested,  by  Doctor 
Allison. 

Of  these  three  men,  only  Caesar  Rodney  was  born 
in  the  State  and  of  English  parentage.  George  Read, 
being  of  Irish  parentage  was  born  just  across  the  border 
in  Cecil  County,  Maryland. 

McKean  too,  like  Read,  was  admitted  to  practice 


Philadelphia^  Pcnna*  19 


before  he  was  twenty-one,  having  studied  law  with  David 
Finney,  Esquire,  of  New  Castle.  He  was  early  appointed 
Deputy  Attorney-General.  In  1757  and  1758  he  was 
Clerk  of  the  Assembly. 

In  1752,  he  was  appointed  with  Caesar  Rodney  to 
revise  and  print  the  laws  then  in  existence  in  this 
Province.  In  1762  he  was  elected  member  of  the  General 
Assembly,  and  this  was  repeated  uninterrupedly  for  seven- 
teen years,  or  to  1779. 

Think  of  it  for  a  moment,  that  one  man  should  be 
held  in  such  respect  and  estem  by  his  constitutents  as  to 
be  elected  year  after  year  for  seventeen  years  as  a  member 
of  the  General  Assembly  of  the  State,  all  through  the 
trying  times  of  the  Revolution.  This  was  done  after 
repeated  declinations  on  his  part.  From  1773  to  1779, 
he  had  really  lived  in  Philadelphia  and  not  in  Delaware ; 
and  after  he  had  positively  declined  to  allow  the  use  of 
his  name  after  his  term  of  seventeen  years,  the  people 
suggested  to  him  that  if  he  could  not  serve  he  had  better 
name  who  should  serve,  which  he  did  and  they  elected 
the  men  whom  he  suggested. 

He  was  one  of  the  members  of  the  Committee  of  the 
Loan  Office  for  three  terms  of  four  years  each. 

In  J  765  he  was  appointed  sole  Notary  Public  for  the 
three  counties,  and  to  that  was  added  Justice  of  the 
Peace,  and  Justice  of  the  Court  of  Common  Pleas  and 
Quarter  Sessions  and  Orphans'  Court  for  the  County  of 
New  Castle;  so  that  he  seems  to  have  had  quite  an 
accumulation  of  offices. 

There  had  come  across  the  water  an  edict  that  only 
stamped  paper  was  to  be  used  in  the  Courts  of  the 
Colonies,  but  he  was  bold  enough  to  tell  the  authorities 


20  Sons  of  Delaware, 


that  he  would  use  unstamped  paper  when  he  chose  to  do 
so — ^and  he  did.  He  took  this  stand  in  the  Common 
Pleas  Court,  in  November,  1765. 

McKean  had  been  licensed  to  practice  law  in  Dela- 
ware and  Pennsylvania  prior  to  1766 — although  very 
young — ^and  afterwards  in  New  Jersey*  In  J  77  J  he  was 
appointed  Coflector  of  Customs  at  New  Castle*  New 
Castle  was  his  general  home,  although  he  owned  land 
about  Christiana  Bridge,  where  he  spent  considerable 
time* 

In  1774  he  was  a  member  of  the  first  Congress,  from 
Delaware,  although  living  in  Philadelphia,  and  continued 
a  member  until  J  783,  a  period  of  nine  years ;  and  he  was 
the  only  member  of  Congress  who  took  his  seat  in  the 
first  Congress  and  remained  a  member  until  the  close  of  the 
war*  While  serving  Delaware  as  a  member  of  Congress, 
he  was  acting  for  six  years,  from  J  777,  as  Chief  Justice 
of  Pennsylvania*  And  during  one  year  ( J78J)t  he  acted 
in  the  three-fold  capacity  of  Member  of  Congress  from 
Delaware,  President  of  Congress  and  Chief  Justice  of 
Pennsylvania* 

If  it  would  be  possible  ever  to  combine  in  any  one 
public  character  more  offices  than  that  at  one  time,  I  am 
unable  to  appreciate  it* 

In  J  776  he  was  in  the  New  Jersey  campaign  with 
Washington  as  Colonel  of  the  Philadelphia  Associators* 
While  there  he  was  elected  a  member  of  the  Convention 
to  form  the  first  Constitution  of  Delaware*  He  came  to 
this  Convention  in  August,  1776*  Years  afterwards, 
writing  in  regard  to  it,  he  said  that  in  a  tavern  on  the 
night  preceding  the  meeting  of  the  Convention,  he  drafted 
the  Constitution  itself  which  was  adopted  substantially 


Philadelphia^  Penna.  21 


by  the  Convention,  and  that  he  drafted  it  without  the  aid 
of  any  book,  sitting  alone  in  a  room  of  the  tavern*  He 
was  then  on  his  way  from  the  New  Jersey  campaign  to 
the  Convention,  which,  I  think,  met  at  New  Castle*  In 
drafting  this  Constitution  (which  was  afterwards  adopted 
by  the  Convention  as  the  first  Constitution  of  Delaware) 
somebody  suggested  that  he  had  a  bottle  of  ink  (and  a 
bottle  of  something  else),  a  quill  and  a  sand-box;  and  that 
was  alL 

McKean  served  as  Chief  Justice  of  Pennsylvania  for 
twenty-two  years — from  J  777  to  1799.  He  was  elected 
Governor  of  that  State  and  was  twice  re-elected,  serving 
nine  years  altogether* 

He  retired  from  public  life  in  1808*  He  died  in  18  J  7, 
in  Philadelphia,  and  was  buried  in  Christ^s  Church-yard 
in  Philadelphia,  dying  in  his  87th  year* 

McKean  is  described  as  tall,  erect  and  dignified,  his 
face  expressive  of  ability,  courage  and  fortitude* 

His  first  wife  was  a  Miss  Borden  of  New  Jersey,  by 
which  marriage  there  were  six  children*  His  second 
wife  was  Miss  Armitage  of  New  Castle,  and  by  this  mar- 
riage there  were  eleven  children* 

You  can  appreciate  that  a  man  who  was  as  long  and 
as  continously  in  public  life  as  was  this  man,  made  many 
bitter  enemies ;  and  especially  during  the  time  that  he  was 
Governor  of  Pennsylvania,  he  seems  to  have  had  the 
faculty  of  stirring  up  a  great  deal  of  opposition ;  so  that 
many  severe  and  cutting  things  were  said  about  him*  I 
presume  the  politicians  of  those  days  were  about  as  ugly 
in  their  remarks  as  they  are  to-day*  But  Thomas 
McKean  was  able  to  hold  his  own*  Here  is  his  picture; 
and  it  is  evident  that  a  man  having  the  characteristics  as 


22  Sons  of  Delaware^ 


shown  in  that  face,  was  perfectly  able  to  hold  his  own 
under  all  circumstances,  as  he  did* 

Here  is  a  picture  of  George  Read,  the  signer — a 
milder  and  gentler  sort  of  man,  evidently;  a  delightful 
face  or  visage  No  wonder  the  people  loved  and  honored 
him* 

If  in  this  brief  and  imperfect  sketch  of  these  three 
men,  I  have  been  able  to  interest  you,  and  if  in  the  con- 
sideration of  their  lives  we  shall  all  conclude  that  we 
have  some  characters  in  Delaware  history  of  which  we 
may  be  all  proud,  I  shall  feel  amply  repaid  for  any  exer- 
tion made  on  my  own  part* 


Philadelphia,  Penna*  23 

Officers, 

SONS  OF  DELAWARE, 

Philadelphia, 

J897. 

Presidentt 

RICHARD  nSHER, 

408  Walnut  Street, 

First  Vice-Presidentt 

WILLIAM  T.  TILDEN, 

252  N.  Front  Street. 

Second  Vice-President^ 

ALEXANDER  P.  COLESBERRY, 

44J  Chestnut  Street. 

Treasurer, 

EDWARD  C  MILLER, 

526  South  8th  Street. 

Historian, 

NORRIS  S.  BARRATT, 

2J6  South  Third  Street. 

Secretary, 

WILLIAM  T.  WESTBROOK,  Jr., 

334  Phila.  Bourse. 

Board  of  Governors, 

D.  B.  C.  CATHERWOOD,  50  S.  Front  Street. 
JAMES  B.  CANBY,  27  North  Water  Street. 
ALFRED  N.  CHANDLER,  Bourse  Building,  Phila. 
Dr.  THOMAS  C.  STELLWAGEN,  J328  Chestnut  Street. 
WARREN  HARPER,  J25  South  3rd  Street. 
WILLLIAM  W.  MARVILL,  5J5  Market  Street. 
FRANCIS  H.  HOFFECKER,  Wilmington,  Delaware. 
JOHN  L.  CLAWSON,  45  South  2nd  Street. 


This  book  is  due  at  the  LOUIS  R.  WILSON  LIBRARY  on  the 
last  date  stamped  under  "Date  Due."  If  not  on  hold  it  may  be 
renewed  by  bringing  it  to  the  library. 

DATE                    ovT 
DUE                       ^^^ 

DATE 

DUE                       "*^* 

1  ^  '-^ 

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»^'^<^ 

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SS                   v\mV 

■  J^.      •                       ■-        Ti'v 

c... 

form  No.  513 

